"Creating the Nonsexist Classroom: A Multicultural Approach"

Theresa Mickey McCormick

This book was cited quite a bit in the literature I’d perused, so I was curious to check it out. It’s pretty dated, which I suppose is the catch 22 of something oft-cited from the 90s, but it still had a few good things to offer.

To be honest, the thing I found most worthwhile with this book was a bit of confirmation. Most of what McCormick had to say (and I only really read Chapter Three “Nonsexist, Culturally Inclusive Instruction: Issues and Strategies”) seemed really obvious to me. Which, at first, made me question the value of the book. But the more I thought about it, the more I gave myself a bit of credit: as a book published in the nineties, it devotes a lot of its time to explaining why instructors need to be conscientious about how they treat their students, especially when it comes to issues of gender and culture. It seems that in the 20 years since the book was published, we’ve all come a long ways, culturally, when it comes to even acknowledging the importance of cultural sensitivity. And that’s a good thing.

There was an entire section devoted to why an instructor needs to pay attention to her students: to be sure to treat them fairly, to listen to them, and to work to genuinely meet them where they’re at. I try to do that. McCormick talks a lot about an instructor being honest with herself about her own biases and prejudices, which is something I’ve become much more invested in.

I came away feeling encouraged, mostly, because McCormick, while offering a few practical in-class strategies, mostly wants to say that just trying makes a big difference. And I suppose I am.  

"Why Doesn't This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy"

Elizabeth Ellsworth

1989

This article challenges the underlying assumptions of critical pedagogy. Specifically, it targets the rationalist assumptions and modes of discourse common in the practice of critical pedagogy which reinforce the very systems of oppression that critical pedagogy seeks to challenge.

Ellsworth details her experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during a particularly turbulent time in the late 80s when a fraternity on campus caused outrage by constructing a racist effigy for a themed party. In an attempt to address the event, and the broader context of race relations both on campus and beyond, Ellsworth created a course that sought to create dialogue for interested parties.

In practice, she found that she and her students brought many assumptions into the classroom about what terms like "empowerment," "student voice," "dialogue," and "critical reflection" actually mean. Though these concepts are rooted in a framework which acknowledges and seeks to displace authoritarian structures, Ellsworth argues that these terms (all central to critical pedagogy) actually reinforce those structures implicitly.

One of the most interesting responses that Ellsworth proposes to her dilemma is the acceptance of unknowability; that neither she nor her students were capable of fully "understanding" the phenomenon of racism in its totality, as each individuals' perspective is undeniable limited. Instead, she proposes a shared state of "knowing" that affirms two apparent dialogic contradictions simultaneously: "you know me/I know you"even as "you can't know me/I can't know you."

This will be a useful study for my paper, as it is centrally concerned with the problem of privilege and in proposing strategies to deal with it in the classroom.